What can I say, I absolutely loved this! I personally have never seen a gay/queer main storyline done before in Asian drama, only seen side characters that are hugely flamboyant or act as comic relief. Having lots of same-sex interactions in a way that felt less jokey and more "cheeky" or charming was really fun and sweet to see, and I loved the incredibly rich backstories to each of the four main characters, as well as some of the other supporting cast. There is a dark underbelly that the main character of the film deals with, but it's kept really entertaining by sharing screen time with the day-to-day goings on of the cute little bakery the story is based around. So although this film does have some pretty dark themes I honestly can't get across how fun and feel-good this movie ends up being.

The only negative I can think of mentioning is that a couple of the characters pull quite heavily from drama tropes/stereotypes - but these tropes are then given fleshed out, natural-feeling backstories which illustrate why they act the way they do. So although their surface behaviour appears "typical", it never comes off too cheesy. For this I decided the acting deserved a resolute 10/10, as I can't imagine how difficult it must be to pull something like that off - playing a stereotypical personality whilst getting across the humanity of that character.

It's slightly difficult to talk about the story itself without revealing potential spoilers, as even the opening scene is linked quite heavily to the story's ending. But what I will say is that I went into this completely blind (as I didn't even realise it was a manga until coming here to write a review), and the emotional punches that this movie comes with are definitely best experienced with no prior knowledge of what you're getting into. So: if you like cakes, pretty gentlemen and a fantastic plotline, give Antique Bakery a go - I can't recommend it enough. :)